“What are these demands?”
“Please accompany me to Griffin’s galley. It will be to your benefit.”
“What are your demands?”
“Okay. You have heard about another race, the Elonians?”
“We’ve heard unsubstantiated chatter about some sort of cat people.”
“Well, Elonians are real. Please do not do anything rash.”
“Rash.”
“Tribune Ambakai?”
Tribune Ambakai materialized at Krag’s right.
“My Commander!”
Snapping the back of his paw to his fury forehead, the Elonian Tribune snapped the sharpest salute he could muster.
Snapping an equally sharp salute, Krag responded, “At ease, Tribune Ambakai.”
Again facing Weiskoff, Krag continued, “Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, may I present Tribune Ambakai of the Elonian Royal Guardsmen.”
Ambakai flicked an ear at the insertion of the word ‘Royal’. Krag lifted a brow. Ambakai nodded in understanding.
“This is one of those cat people that the chatter was about.”
“If you are going to use a derogatory term, we prefer ‘Leopards’,” Ambakai stated.
“Yes. There are more here. Again, please do not panic. They are allies. Tribune?”
“Guardsmen, come forth!”
Six Elonian Guardsmen materialized, two more on the ground and four hovering over the Odin personnel. All six held gravity guns at the ready, across their chest plates, ready to be brought to bear.
“They can fly?”
Weiskoff glared at his adjunct for the interruption.
“Sorry, Sir.”
“Alien tech, Lieutenant.”
“Please. Accompany me to Griffin’s galley. I am sure that, after living on processed food for so long, you and your crew would like a good, hot meal.”
“Admiral?”
“Yes, okay. But only to listen to your silly demands. And to feed my crew.”
“Thank you, Sir. Please follow me, Sir.”
Krag turned. In sharp, military fashion, four Marines and two Guardsmen pivoted, creating a path towards Griffin. Krag gave Buster and Ambakai a nod and led his two crewmates back to the ship. Weiskoff followed. Without being ordered, the other twelve members of Odin’s crew fell in behind. When they all passed through the formation, the Marines and Guardsmen formed up then followed the group, with the four flying Guardsmen floating overhead.
The entourage marched or flew up the ramp, with the flying Guardsmen landing. They marched across the cargo bay, climbed the gangway to Griffin’s flight deck and ended by filtering into the galley/wardroom.
“Tribune, Sergeant, please have your men set up some tables and chairs for our guests. Everyone, please, take advantage of our replicators. Order anything you want. We have no material shortages.”
“How is that, Commander?” Captain Brewer asked.
“Thanks to our friends, we have unlimited supplies and munitions, Captain. Please, enjoy. Let’s take an hour and just relax. Mingle with my crew, learn about Elonians and their culture.
Krag and his people all noticed Weiskoff take his seat at the head of the officer table, Krag’s seat, and glare around the room, saying nothing, just stewing.
For the proscribed hour, the Odin crew endeavored to keep its distance from the Griffin Guardsmen and Sasanian Marines while repeatedly utilizing the food and drink replicators. Courteously, the Griffin defenders allowed them to keep their distance. With Krag as the only outsider, the Odin leadership had no trouble with him in their space. They also utilized the food and drink replicators.
“Where did you meet these aliens, Marston?”
“Elonians, Vice-Admiral. I met them about five hundred lightyears from where you shot Griffin with that X-ray cannon of yours.”
‘Preposterous!”
“It may be, but that is the truth. Since you know I took it, I will talk about that artifact. It is what the Ballisonians call a ‘mass negator’.”
“Ballisonians?”
“We’ll get to them in a moment. It turns out that, when you bombard it with X-rays, this mass negator eliminates the mass of whatever it is attached to, including whatever is inside.
“Pure plop”
“When you are under power, when the mass negator is struck with the X-rays, well, you know the equation. More acceleration, the further you jump.”
“And, you expect me to believe this claptrap?”
“No, Vice-Admiral. With your permission, you will experience a demonstration. Now, we have another guest.”
“More surprises, Commander?”
Krag saw one of the Odin crewmen wander over, plate in hand. “You are?”
“1st Lieutenant Wright. Lead pilot of the Odin, Sir.”
“You are going to love your new ship, pilot. Preceptor Igaklay, Ambassador Suzume, please join me in the Galley.”
“We are on our way, Commander,” Keiko responded.
Shortly, Igaklay and Keiko arrived, stood at the door and scanned the room. They saw three groups of people. Griffin’s Elonians and Humans had taken their regular spots at their community table. They saw that Vice-Admiral Weiskoff and his two lead officers had commandeered Krag’s, hers and Mack’s seats at the bridge table.
Tribune Ambakai froze then unfroze. Two Guardsmen jumped up, rushed to the lockers, grabbed two tables and rushed to expand the officer table. Not to be outdone, Wadji and Latif repeat the Guardsmen’s urgency, this time grabbing two chairs, one being Igaklay’s booster. Once the additions had been placed, Keiko and Igaklay entered.
“Commander, please take this seat.”
Krag saw that Keiko wanted Krag at the opposite end of the table as Weiskoff. Rising, he did as asked. Keiko and Igaklay took their seats, at the side of Krag.
“A little green man, Marston?”
“Again, Captain?”
“Always, Preceptor Igaklay.”
“I want to be big and purple.”
“With one eye, no doubt.”
“Did you listen to the song, too?”
“It was one of my favorites when I was young.”
“What’s that?”
“Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, may I present the avatar of Preceptor Igaklay. Preceptor Igaklay is a moon-sized artificial intelligence which orbits the planet Ballison. Preceptor Igaklay, this is Vice-Admiral Weiskoff.”
“He does not like you very much, Captain.”
“No, he doesn’t, Igaklay. But, sometimes, people who don’t like each other must work together.”
“Well, he is rude. I do not like him either.”
“But, you will work with him?”
“Of course, Captain. I am a member of Den Griffin. You and Ambassador Suzume are my Overseers. If you deem that we must work with Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, then I will work with him.”
Weiskoff, Clarke, Brewer and Wright confusedly listened to this strange conversation.
“Preceptor Igaklay’s people, the Ballisonians, are the ones who developed the mass negators, among other technology, Vice-Admiral. The Elonians supplied the artificial gravity technology.”
“Griffin has true artificial gravity?” Brewer interrupted.
“Yes, Captain.”
“Commander, this might be a good time to show them the bridge.”
“Excellent idea, Ambassador. Gentlemen, would you please accompany us to the bridge?”
The three Odin officers followed the three Griffin crewmates to her bridge. Upon entering, Krag and Keiko stepped out of the way. Igaklay hustled over to his chair, climbed up and sat. Sue and Gopai turned to inspect the guests.
Weiskoff looked around with disdain. He scowled when he saw the Elonian sitting at one of the bridge consoles. Clarke, having to report to Weiskoff, remained neutral. Brewer stared in wonderment.
“No compression pods, Commander?”
“They’re not needed, Captain. Preceptor Igaklay has kindly supplied us with Ballisonian technology so that we can withst
and the stress of mass negation. The Elonians have installed regulators with the gravity generators for any acceleration or course corrections.”
“Astounding.”
“Preceptor Igaklay has agreed to add these enhancements to the Mortek cruiser which we have acquired. One moment.”
Krag, like the Elonians, froze then unfroze. Unlike the Elonians, he did not telepathically communicate. Instead, using his cranial net, Krag communicated with Buster.
“I just told Buster to have your crew lay down on the deck.”
“The android?”
“Another story. But, yes. Please lie down on the deck. We are going to jump to Cencore.”
“Jump to Cencore.”
“Yes, Vice-Admiral. As I said, a gift from Preceptor Igaklay. Please lie down.”
Cencore Shipyard Assault
Reaching the rear of the fighting force, Sergeant Nelson carefully worked his way through his men and women to reach the front.
“Jones, what have we got?”
“Nothing since the last skirmish. I think we cleaned out a recon. Other than that, we haven’t run into anything more.”
“Slow and steady. Let’s stay with the two low, two high config, people. Ramirez, Cox, are you two still good to go?”
“Right as rain, Sarge.”
“Sanchez, could you distribute your people, by twos, over the Marines?”
“Roger, Sarge. T.D.’s, by two’s. Follow Sergeant Nelson’s lead. We’re air cover for the ground pounders. Clear?”
Not having been held to the same discipline as Federacy Marines, the Tolimar Defense force returned an uncoordinated smattering of different affirmations.
Nelson and Sanchez watched eighteen Militia members lift to the ceiling, become horizontal and ready their arms.
“Not bad for civvies, Sanchez.”
“They’re good in a crunch. We got bloodied on Tolimar.”
“We did too. We saw your team in action. You’re right. They’re fighters. Squad, move out!”
The squad crept forward. Two Marines and two Militia moved just to the end of the sightline and dropped in place. Two more pairs of Marines and Militia move up, tapped shoulders or feet and moved forward as the kneeling marines and floating militia swept the causeway.
Slowly, the force leap-frogged its way around a quarter of the giant shipyard. Before they reached their entry point to the axle, they encountered another Mortek force.
The two forward moving marines and the two flying militia never had a chance. Armored Mortek caught the four just as they reach the maximum line of sight. The front four, two kneeling, two standing, opened up with a withering fire of laser beams, slicing through the marines, killing them instantly. More lasers targeted the flyers, cutting through their armor and causing the two now-dead militia members to crash to the deck.
At the first sounds of combat, the human forces ran forward. With the shipyard causeway built for supplies and equipment, its width and height allowed two Mortek to traverse side-by-side. So could four humans.
Four marines dropped to keeling fire positions. Four marines stood. Four militia swarmed in, ceiling height. Twelve guns took on four Mortek lasers.
Two more marines fell. Two more marines took their places in the firing line. All four Mortek died. Now in a rage, the twelve attackers marched down the hall, headless of the danger. They encountered another four Mortek. Now sharpened for killing, the eight marines and four militia slaughtered their enemy, never giving it a chance to respond.
“Medics!” Nelson bellowed.
Corpsmen Stevens and Fisher rushed forward. After their frantic efforts, they turned to their sergeant and shook their heads.
“Damn those bugs! Corpsmen, bag them. We’re taking our own home.”
“Aye, aye, Sergeant.”
“Sarge, we’ve hit a fortified defense.”
“What have you got, Garcia?”
“A constructed barrier.”
“Hold. I will be right there.”
Nelson raced to cover the path of the forward twelve, angry fighters. He stepped around or hopped over first, four dead Mortek then four more. Reaching Garcia, Nelson saw what she saw.
“With our small arms, we will never get through that. Davis,” Nelson spoke into his mic.
“Sarge?”
“Send a snoop. I want to see what’s on the other side.”
“Be right there, Sarge.”
Nelson didn’t wait long. Corporal Davis dropped beside his Sergeant, pulled a small box from his belt, opened it then pulled and tossed an object into the air. Working his pad, he guided the small, flitty drone towards and over the Mortek barricade.
“thirty Mortek, Sarge. All armored. Heavily armed.”
“No way can we crack that.”
“Maybe Marston has some ideas.”
“You read my mind, Garcia. I’ll give the Commander a call.”
Chapter 19
Aboard Griffin – Cencore
Griffin’s crewmates looked down at the groggy Weiskoff, Clarke and Brewer. They watched from their gravity chairs as the three on the deck sat up and, variously, held their heads, rubbed their foreheads or just sat, attempting to make the massive headaches go away.
“Sergeant Boulos.”
“Sir!”
“How are your men?”
“Ready to rock, Sir.”
“Good. Send up your Corpsman, Corporal Faheem. We need to have him check out our guests on the bridge.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
Krag heard, “Faheem, you heard The Man. Move it!”
“Tribune Ambakai.”
“My Commander?”
“How are your Guardsmen?”
“As Bully stated, My Commander. Ready to rock.”
“Excellent. Have Guardsman Suraya check the rest of Odin’s crew. Sergeant Boulos, accompany him. I don’t want anyone freaking out.”
“At your command, My Commander.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
Griffin’s bridge crew waited and watched as Corporal Faheem administered pain killers and boosters to the three groggy Federacy officers. While they waited for those three’s return to normalcy, Krag turned to Sue.
“Sue, what do you see?”
“A whole bunch of floating Mortek ships, Captain.”
“None under power?”
“Just the one frigate racing to the Bridgelen gate.”
“Where’s Limpet?”
“She’s attached to the outside ring of the main shipyard. From the schematics, it looks like they picked a spot close to the access tunnel to the center axle.”
“Throw it up on the screen.”
Everyone became entranced, watching the first step in the invasion of the shipyard.
“Marston, what’s going on? Where are we?”
“Like I told you, Vice-Admiral, we are now in Cencore. How’s the headache?”
“Damn. You do have a jump drive.”
“The same one we had when you fired on us, Vice-Admiral.”
“Now, what are you looking at?” Weiskoff made to take over Krag’s command chair.
“Oy, Admiral. You really need to fix your attitude towards the Commander. Cap has pulled a lot of bacon out of a lot of fires. Without him and the Wee-One, you’d be nothing but meat on a Mortek’s dinner plate.”
Rotating, Krag continued to sit while dropping his feet to the deck.
“It’s alright, Mack. The Vice-Admiral needs to wrap his mind around a new galaxy. I’m giving him some slack.”
“Mack is right, Krag. Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, Krag Marston is the Commander of all that remains of any space fleet in all of Humanity except for the Sol system.”
“No. the Federacy is the governing power. And I am the ranking officer of the Federacy. You, Mz. Suzume, are a civilian. And, from what I gather, a criminal, in league with Marston in stealing Federacy property. You have no voice in this matter. In fact, you should be in jail.”
“Um, Vice-Admiral?”
Krag began to lose his control.
“First, Weiskoff, Ambassador Suzume is the civilian voice for all of the Human, Elonian, Ballison Alliance. When she speaks, she is speaking for three different species spread across thousands of lightyears. You will show her the respect she deserves. Second, if you keep this holier-than-thou attitude, I will be happy to drop you back onto your sand dune then you and your Federacy can play all the pretend games that you want. And I will find someone else to command that Mortek cruiser. A battleship almost as large as Odin and much more powerful.”
“Captain, I don’t think that this is going to work. Vice-Admiral Weiskoff clearly does not listen.”
“It probably won’t, Buster. If it does work, we have someone to command the fleet. If it doesn’t, we’ll find somebody else.”
“Your android? You’re talking to a robot?”
“Tinman, here, is not some run-of-the-mill robot, Admiral. He is a fully sentient synthetic. Under Elonian law, Buster is every bit a person as you are. Maybe more.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Ya, well, ya see, Admiral, our Elonian friends fixed Buster up. He may not have come from the normal way of coming, but he is every bit as human as you are. With some Elonian thrown in.”
“Preposterous.”
“Ya have a lot of learning to do, Admiral.”
“Um, Vice-Admiral, we need to discuss these new circumstances.”
“Lieutenant, I..”
Krag interrupted, “I think that that is a very good idea, Lieutenant Clarke. Buster, please show these gentlemen to the executive suite.”
“Krag, we haven’t removed Princess Analyn’s belongings from there.” Keiko interrupted.
“A Princess?”
“An Elonian Princess, Vice-Admiral. The daughter of the King and Queen of Elonia. She’s been travelling with us.”
Two of the three Federacy officers listened in amazement. The third, Weiskoff, just became more sullen.
“Oh. I forgot. You’re right. Buster, please show these three gentlemen to the galley. They can wait there until their accommodations are prepared.”
Victory in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 6) Page 20